


Patched Realities

by tigercry



Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga), ソードアート・オンライン - 川原礫 | Sword Art Online - Kawahara Reki
Genre: Argo is Asuna's sister, F/M, IRL Aincrad, potential series, written 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:49:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25244932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigercry/pseuds/tigercry
Summary: Inspired by "Worlds Collide," "Aincrad Realized", "Worlds Apart."In some sort of sick twist to the end of SAO the players of the game are still in Aincrad. However... something's different and the watchers of the SAO stream can attest to that.After all, isn't that Aincrad now attached to the end of Japan?
Relationships: Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito/Yuuki Asuna | Asuna
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	Patched Realities

**Author's Note:**

> This is another of my one-shots on Fanfiction.net under the collection name: Little Moments. It's easy to find if you want to read them all together there (even if all of them are being uploaded here separately)

"Game over Kirito," Heathcliff's steel colored eyes were disappointed, disappointed in the young man in front of him for not being strong enough to beat the game. His greatsword flashed with red light and swung down toward the young man, his expression completely unchanging.

"Kirito!"

"No!"

"Kyaba stop!"

"Commander!"

The other players' cries rang throughout the massive boss room, only making Kirito continue to stare at the sword coming at him with only a few thoughts in his mind. _Asuna… take care of Yui and finish this… for me…_

A yell, louder than anyone else's rang through, "KIRITO!" It was made by a voice Kirito would always remember, deep in his heart, and the heartbroken panicked sound from his wife's mouth would haunt him for years. "NO!"

Half a second later Kirito forced his eyes open at the sound of clanging metal and the pressure of someone stumbling back into him. Only to quickly catch the person, his eyes widening in shock and horror. "No…" he breathed, looking at Asuna's pained amber eyes and holding her up from falling to the floor. His sword clattered to the floor just as he fell to his knees, eyes fixated on Asuna's diminishing health bar. "You cant…" he croaked as the long beep that signaled her health being completely depleted, "don't… don't leave me!" He held her to his body, noticing how she barely moved, unable to summon the energy to move. "Asuna! Don't go!" He felt choked, like he couldn't breathe, even in a virtual world where he didn't need to breathe at all.

Asuna's vision faded, Kirito saw her amber eyes glaze as she lightly grasped at his shirt before her avatar glowed, and a short sentence escaped her lips. "I love you, so much…"

"Asuna!" Kirito cried, pressing her to his body like it would stop her from leaving him, "don't go!" He whimpered, "I need you!" Her weight lightened till he couldn't really feel her in his arms, "Asuna!" The black Swordsman's onyx colored eyes glittered with tears, "Asuna!" Asuna's avatar shattered into polygons, floating up into the air and dispersing. Leaving Kirito to hunch over and press the heels of his palms against his eyes, momentarily breaking down, trembling all over. "ASUNA!"

Everyone was still, even Heathcliff who looked sadly down at the Black Swordsman for a few minutes before he spoke quietly, his voice strong and yet only loud enough to be carried by the silence. "I've seen enough. Players, prepare for Aincrad's next stage, and be prepared for what comes next. Black Swordsman," he lightly touched Kirito's shoulder, "you'll see her again in this next stage." He straightened up and looked at a specific point in the air, "citizens of the real world, get ready, for Aincrad isn't a game any longer."

A blinding flash of light filled the room, expanding outward till Aincrad as a whole castle was enveloped in the blinding light.

**Tokyo 2028, November 7th, 2:30pm** **〘** **SAO's End** **〙**

Suguha brought her hands up to her mouth, tears welling in her eyes. Her brother, her quiet sweet brother, just lost everything, everything. After watching bits and pieces of the stream that had lasted the past five years, where she was now seventeen years old and had been watching her brother live and grow through the SAO stream, she hadn't seen this coming. Not in a million years.

Midori gave a muffled sob, both of them fixated on the tv in front of them. Midori's son and Suguaha's brother was currently on his knees, trembling and clearly trying yet unable to get ahold of himself, of his feelings and wayward emotions.

"Onii-chan…" Suguha murmured, wide eyes still fixed on the tv. "You have to keep going Onii-chan… You have to!"

Her words were useless as Heathcliff spoke, heard clearly through the stream as the camera, that usually followed Kirito and some of the other players around, faced Heathcliff, who was looking at Kirito with a rather grave expression. "I've seen enough. Players, prepare for Aincrad's next stage."

"Next stage?" Suguha looked at her mother in confusion, "what next stage?"

"And be prepared for what comes next. Blackswordsman," Sugu's blood boiled at the man who dared to touch her brother after swinging his sword to deal Asuna's killing blow. "You'll see her again in this next stage." Heathcliff straightened up and looked directly at the camera, causing chills to go down Sugu's back, "citizens of the real world, get ready, for Aincrad isn't a game any longer." With those words the tv was lit with a blinding white glow and Sugu covered her eyes, Midori mirroring her. Moments later, when the light dimmed down, the tv was black with words displayed across the screen. 'The stream has ended.'

"The stream ended?" Confusion swirled around in Sugu's head, what was going on? What next stage? And how could Aincrad not be a game? "What's going on?!" she asked, looking over at her mother with a look of confusion.

Midori shared Sugu's confusion, but she was already dialing a number and holding her phone up to her ear. She was silent for a moment before someone picked up, "Kikuoka? What's going on-"

She was cut off by the ground shaking violently, causing vases and trophies from shelves to crash down and shatter on the floor, paintings and pictures to come loose, glass to shatter from the frames, and windows to completely shatter as well.

"Ah!" Sugu shrieked and lifted her arms to protect her face from the flying glass.

"Kikuoka!" Midori yelped and dropped the phone to cover her face as well.

"Get outside!" Kikoka's voice could be heard faintly through the phone, "and keep your phones on you!"

Sugu followed his advice, managed to get to her feet, scooped up the phone, and ran dragging Midori behind her by the wrist. Sugu ducked to protect her head and quickly threw open the door and raced outside, only for her mouth to drop open. "Are you seeing this?!" She shouted over the rumbling and lifted the phone to her ear.

"We're seeing it!" Kikuoka yelled back, barely audible over the phone, "is Midori with you?!"

"Yes!"

"Is that…" Midori trailed off and pointed at the massive shape that seemed to be desending from the sky in a controlled fall above the Pacific Ocean. A massive cone shaped steel castle with a tapered end toward the top and a base that looked like it was torn out of the ground with massive roots curling around the bottom with broken ends. The base of the actual castle flared out into parallel sloped circles around it's uprooted base that jutted out in ten pathways where massive swords perched, their crossbars connecting with the rod like pathways. The castle was rough, with many level built on top of one another, each level clearly able to be seen from the outside, and up at the very top stood a castle the size of Toyko bathed in vivid red. The swords on the castle were steel like the castle, a metallic grey with the blades each being a bright white.

Sugu had seen it on the cover of SAO, and on the stream every time it was loading in and the camera was searching for her brother. It was Aincrad, the very prison her brother had been virtually stuck in for five years now. "It's…" She could barely speak, unable to believe that the castle was there, in the real world. "It's…" She started running, running toward the closest dock, her eyes fixed on the castle above.

The massive castle crashed into the water moments later, sending massive waves throughout the water ending with high waves slapping at the beaches and city barriers only to send water sprinkling down on the inhabitants like a sprinkle of rain. The only damage the castle did was when three of the massive swords slammed into the ground, sending earth flying _**(I'm pretending Tokyo's on the coast :P I don't live in Japan XD)**_ as they buried themselves up to their cross bars.

Suguha felt the water hit her face as a wave smashed into the dock she was standing on and rained down on her like a mini raincloud, and watched, amazed as Aincrad settled itself on the water, bobbing softly like it weighed nothing. "It's…"

The magnificent castle's swords lit up, glowing a bright light like street lights, as if inviting the world to venture into its depths.

"Aincrad." She and Kikuoka said the same thing, the government official sounded just as stunned as Sugu.

"It's real, I'm staring at it, but how?"

"Who knows Kikuoka," Sugu responded quietly, awe in her voice, "it's Aincrad, it shouldn't exist in the first place."

**Town of New Beginnings, Real Aincrad November 7th 3:30pm** **〘** **It's Real…** **〙**

Kirito's head spun and he groaned, feeling like the world was actively spinning around him. He felt different, his body was heavier, more solid, more real actually. He still felt roughly the same size as he had been after the growth update a few years ago. Meaning he was still bigger than his fifteen-year-old self which was good, it had been hard to adjust to being taller and a little less lanky than when he was in the beginning of SAO, and would be even harder to go backwards. However, he noticed one other change right away. He could _feel_ his clothing. SAO was good at replicating things, but it had always lacked a little when it came to having things constantly touching the body, so when he could actually feel the cloth against his body, he was startled.

Kirito jumped to his feet with a rather undignified yelp and looked at his arms and body, studying how the cloth felt against his arms, and it felt like it had before SAO… Kirito yanked up his sleeve and looked at the belly of his arm. In SAO there wasn't anything different from the rest of his skin, but now? _**(totally giving Asuna some freckles XD)**_ There was a faint scar where he had burned himself on electrical wiring when he had built he own computer as a kid. Kirito's heart stopped. Something had changed, changed drastically. He looked wildly around, wondering if anyone else had felt anything and was shocked to find almost all of the surviving players all sprawled on the ground or standing up like he had, alarmed and confused.

"People of Aincrad," a familiar and very hated voice spoke throughout the city, his voice carrying and echoing just like it had that fated first day, even though now he was nowhere to be found. "I'm sure most of you have realized that there's something different about Aincrad, everything feels different does it not? Allow me to explain why. My steel castle, floating in the sky, I don't know how old I was when I came up with it, but since I was a kid I've dreamed about a world away from Earthly law with laws of it's own."

"Get on with it already!" someone yelled furiously and Kirito couldn't help but agree. He wanted to know why everything felt this way and what happened.

Kyaba ignored the outburst and continued speaking, "so I made it my dream, working toward creating it and one day allowing the world to see it. At first I experimented with a virtual model, and it became the game known as Sword Art Online."

Kirito's eyebrows furrowed, where was he going with this?

"Once I deemed it successful I launched the game, intending to find a population for my future project. The project of which has at least been finished, and you, the ten thousand players, are part of the population to make up this beautiful project."

Kirito's eyes widened and his jaw threatened to go slack, he understood, Kyaba's project… His project was more than SAO, more than virtual Aincrad. It was bringing Aincrad to the real world.

"What does that mean?"

"What's going on Kyaba?!"

"What did you do to us?!"

Kirito could only stare into nothingness, _the nightmare of SAO to these players just got a million times worse._

"This project brought Aincrad to life, and now my friends, enjoy the world that is Aincrad! SAO was never intended to be finished, it was intended to become real, part of the real world, Earth! Behold Aincrad! Earth's newest continent!"

Kirito couldn't breathe. Aincrad was real, SAO had been brought to life, and Kyaba had just made them all citizens of a new country not all of them wanted to be in. Other players roared in outrage and it was almost like the first day of SAO all over again except Kirito smiled, a soft smile appearing on his nineteen-year-old face as he looked up at the floor one's sky. _I can have both worlds, my family from the real world and Yui, Yuuki, and Asuna-_ his thoughts screeched to a halt. Asuna… Heathcliff had gotten her, killed his wife. Kirito fell to his knees, clenching his hands and fighting to breathe and fighting back the tears. How could he have forgotten? Asuna was dead, killed by the very man who had forever trapped him here. Kirito's heart wrenched and his squeezed his eyes shut, lower lip trembling as he struggled to keep it to himself, at least long enough to find a private place to grieve. Aincrad was a constant reminder of her, and he was never going to see her again. A sob slipped from his lips and Kirito couldn't hold it in anymore, he hunched over his knees and cried, crying not for being stuck in a new IRL Aincrad, but for Asuna never getting to see it with him. "Asuna…"

**Mystery Room, Real Aincrad November 7th, 4:30pm** **〘** **Awakening** **〙**

"As...un...a… wa...ke… up…"

_Someone's calling my name…_ Asuna noticed dully as some of her senses returned, her eyes were closed, yet she could see the time and other information on her HUD, so she knew she wasn't dead or IRL, so where was she? _What happened? I remember Heathcliff's sword…_ Asuna flinched and almost lifted a hand to her chest, where she could almost remember the discomfort and panic in her head at being slashed by a sword right through the shoulder to her opposite hip. _And Kirito trying to keep me there with him…_ Her brain felt fuzzy and confused, and her body felt sore, like she hadn't moved for a long period of time. She didn't recognize the voice faintly calling her name and telling her something, or maybe she did and was too groggy to figure it out?

"Asuna!" Her hearing was clearing up now, she could hear the full word and not broken syllables now. "A-chan get up! You've been sleepin' forever!"

The nickname was a dead give away. Asuna jolted upright, amber eyes snapping open and jolting into an upright position at the realization that it was Argo's voice calling her only to violently knock heads with her older sister. Akira's, who was known as Argo in SAO, voice and accent had always been off in SAO, mainly due to the system's struggle to recreate her special breathing twitch without a full body scan of Argo's lungs and airways. Asuna saw stars, Aincrad's Goddess her sister's head was hard! "Ow!"

"Yeowch!" The blond brought her hands up to cradle her injured forehead and stumbled back away from her, "did ya have to give me a headache A-chan? C'mon!"

"Give you a headache? Your head's practically steel!" Asuna groaned in response and hunched over with her eyes now closed, cradling her head in her hands.

Soft giggling and the feeling of a blanket being wrapped around Asuna's shoulders alerted her of another person in the room with them, a room she had barely gotten a glimpse of. "At least she's awake now Argo," the girl spoke in a soft and rather timid tone, like her voice was infused with said emotions. "So we can try and find out the other people you were talking about and find out what's going on."

"Ya, when the world stops spinnin'," Argo groaned and faintly sniffed, like she needed the extra air after speaking. Or like her airways twitched, making her breathe in sharply in the form of a sniff.

Asuna froze for a second at hearing the sound something she hadn't heard since _before_ SAO. Her eyes snapped open again and she seized the shorter girl by the shoulders, "you sniffed!" Her amber eyes were wide and fixed on her sister's face, "you sniffed after you spoke Ak-Argo!" She hastily used the gamer handle with the third girl around who she could see out of the corner of her eye. "You've _never_ done that in SAO, never! SAO gave you that weird nasal inflection instead remember? You've sniffing after you speak!"

Argo blinked a few times before she furrowed her eyebrows, "really? Make's ya wonder how long I've been doin' that." With that she sniffed again, her nose twitching slightly as she did so. At the sniff, that she was consciously paying attention to, her hazel eyes widened like golf balls and her jaw slackened. "How?" She looked confused, "we're still in Aincrad right?" It donned on her, her face going rather horrified as she spoke slowly, "Asu, whazzit mean if we're in Aincrad and I'm sniffin'?" As if to emphasize her point, Argo sniffed again.

Asuna's expression turned a little horrified herself and she released Argo's shoulders, half in a daze, "it's real… the only way for you to be sniffing like that without a scan of your airways is if it's real…"

Argo nodded and for a few moments they just stared at each other, mulling over the idea of Aincrad being real.

"Argo, Asuna, what does that mean? It's real?" The third girl asked rather timidly and Asuna jumped, having forgotten that she was there.

Argo spoke before Asuna got a word out, "we're aint sure yet Sachi," the name rang a bell in Asuna's head, "let's get goin' we still gotta find where we are. Right A-chan?" _**(I'm getting lazy about Argo sniffing after every phrase she says, just know that she does that)**_

Asuna looked at the third girl, and with a start she recognized her, Kirito had told her about her, a member of the Moonlit Black cats… who had died in game. "Wait, Sachi, how long have you been here?"

Sachi blinked at her before she responded thoughtfully, "a four or five hours? I woke up first, Argo woke up on her own and we've been trying to wake you for two hours."

Asuna felt a lump growing in her throat, "Argo, what happened before you woke up here?"

Argo scratched her cheek, which miraculously still had her painted on whiskers, and looked thoughtful too, "I was trackin' a few red players through a forest and got hit with a poison arrow..." her expression turned horrified and she looked at Asuna, "wait all three of us died? A red played got meh before I used an antidote crystal, Sachi died in the dungeon with the other Black Cat members, and, hold on, how did ya die A-chan?"

Asuna lifted a hand to her chest where Heathcliff's sword slashed through her, "Heathcliff," she stated quietly, "he's actually Kyaba, and I tried to save Kirito and got slashed…" She straightened and her amber eyes widened, "Kirito! Oh my Aincrad, we have to get out of here and now!" She scrambled to her feet, "come on, we have to get out of here and find out what's going on!"

Argo nodded and then snorted, "ya A-chan, buut, don't you think you should find something else to wear? A blanket ain't gonna be useful for ya with anyone but us."

Asuna blinked, looked down, and gave a yelp, her face now a flaming red.

* * *

**Town of Beginnings, Real Aincrad November 7th 5:00pm** **〘** **Mourning For Asuna** **〙**

"Daddy?" A quiet voice broke Kirito from his numb thoughts a little while later probably at least an hour, and Kirito couldn't summon the energy to open his eyes and respond to his young adopted daughter. "Daddy, are you okay?"

Fresh tears welled in Kirito's eyes and he remained lying on his side, one arm covering his eyes, silently grieving for the loss of his wife, love of his life, battle partner, and life long companion. _I'm sorry Asuna… I broke my promise…_

"Daddy you're scaring me… What's wrong?" Kirito felt two small hands try and shake him, and heard the fear in his daughter's voice, but couldn't do what she was asking him to do. "Daddy? Daddy wake up!"

"Yui! There you are! Did you find Dad?"

Kirito's heart only broke further at the voice of his other daughter, and fresh tears were absorbed by the fabric of his shirt. He wanted to get up and hug them both, relieved to find that they're both okay, but he couldn't. His heart was broken to little shards, and even his two daughters couldn't put the pieces back together, not without their mother. Not without Asuna.

"Yeah Yuuki!" Yui called to her sister, her small voice much more high pitched then her sister's, "but he's not waking up!" Kirito felt her try and shake him some more, "Daddy! Daddy wake up!"

"What do you mean he's not waking up- dad!"

Kirito heard the pounding of feet and felt his much stronger and older daughter forcibly roll him onto his back and felt a lock of her long hair tickle his cheek, which made his heart give another stab of pain. Asuna's hair had done that, if she leaned over him for whatever reason her long hair always tickled his skin and she had known it. Which had led to a lot of goofy moments with her chasing him giggling and him running away laughing.

"Dad, are you okay? You hurt? What happened? Did the boss battle and the shift hurt you?" Yuuki rattled off questions in her usual fast speaking manner and Kirito's shoulders shook slightly. Asuna had always managed to answer each one of her rapid fire questions, remembering each one and answering then when she was finished the question ranting, and he sucked at it, Yuuki spoke too fast for him to really be able to catch everything she was saying. "Yui, go get Liz and Agil!" Kirito heard Yui's small pattering footsteps as she ran off and Yuuki kept talking to him. "Hang on dad, you'll be okay, I promise! I don't know what's wrong but I'll fix it just you wait and see!"

_I wish you could fix it Yuuki,_ Kirito said mentally, his throat closing up at the little reminders of Asuna in his two kids. They were adopted, with Asuna having found Yui in the beginning of the game as just a baby, and experiment of Kyaba's, and Yuuki having been found little before three years ago. They had been taking care of the two of them for forever, even before they had gotten married, Asuna had Yui with her and for a few months Kirito had taken care of Yuuki with Asuna's help. Even then, they were _their_ kids nobody else's, and they loved them dearly.

Yui was five and a half looked a lot like Asuna, with similar features, big doe eyes, and long hair that Asuna had grown out for Yui when she said she wanted to have long hair just like her; with the color of her eyes, hair, skin, and rather lanky build from him. Yuuki was twelve now, with long hair that was about half as long as Asuna's that was now dyed purple, and pink hued amber doe eyes. She was similar to Asuna in body shape at that age, yet liked dark colors like Kirito, and had the most energetic personality ever. The other players knew Yuuki was adopted, but most of them just assumed that Yui was Kirito and Asuna's, and they had been asked a lot over the past five years if she was biologically theirs due to the age and similarities.

"Yuuki," Agil's booming voice was gentle and soft, and Kirito felt a little comfort in having one of his friends around to help him. "Kirito's not sick or injured, he's just sad."

"But why? Why is he so sad that he won't wake up to even Yui shaking him?" Yuuki asked Agil worriedly, Kirito could hear it in her voice. "He's never that sad."

Kirito heard Agil sigh, "Yuuki, have you seen your mother yet?"

"No, I couldn't find either of my parents for a while, why?"

"Don't you think your mother would be here comforting him if she was here?"

"Well yeah, but she's not… but she's not here…" Kirito knew that it had clicked in his daughter's head even as Agil hauled him up into a sitting position and slapped him on the back.

"Kirito, you have two kids worried and not to mention that the rest of the group are worried sick about you. Atleast go home, everyone's waiting for you to go home to floor twenty-two."

Kirito let his arm flop to his side but didn't open his eyes, refusing. _I don't want to, Asuna…_

"Dad," Yuuki's voice, so scared and vulnerable was what eventually made Kirito open his eyes, only to see tears welling in her pinkish amber eyes. "Did… Did mom not make it?" She asked quietly, looking so vulnerable and scared that it broke Kirito's already shattered heart.

Kirito looked at his daughter, tears welling in his own eyes, "I'm sorry kiddo," he spoke in a hoarse tone, "Heathcliff… Kyaba got her… She was protecting me and Kyaba killed her." His throat closed up, "I'm sorry," he breathed, "it's my fault-"

Yuuki threw herself at him into a tight hug, "It's not your fault! You loved her!" Yuuki started sobbing and Kirito circled his arms around his daughter's back, "you didn't swing the sword, you didn't attack her, mom protected you! That's what matters!"

Kirito nodded and hugged his daughter closer, shutting his eyes and letting his own tears drip down his face and drop into her purple hair, wishing he could tell her Asuna was coming home that night, and that Asuna would be there to wake her up for sword training tomorrow morning if everything happened like that.

"Daddy?"

Kirito opened his eyes to see his other daughter cautiously walking toward him holding onto Liz's hand, nervous and rather scared while clearly worried about him. "Come here Yui," Kirito's voice wavered but he released Yuuki for a moment and sat criss cross on the ground and hugged his oldest with one arm and patted his lap with his other hand. "I have to tell you something."

Yui scrambled over to her father and sat in his lap, silver doe eyes focused on her father's face. "Is something wrong daddy?"

Kirito's heart clenched, how could he tell this little five year old girl that Asuna wasn't coming back? How could he when Asuna had always been there for her? Even before Yui met him for the first time, Asuna was with her, with Yui and raising her. "Yui… I don't know if mama's coming home."

Yui's silver eyes welled with tears, "why? Where is she? Where's mommy daddy?" she looked confused and concerned as she reached up and brushed away her father's tears, "why're you crying?"

Kirito swallowed hard and looked at his little girl, "She's somewhere else Yui, where it's quiet, and peaceful," he swallowed again, "where she doesn't have to fight anymore."

Yui burst into tears, "why did mommy leave me?" The young child wailed, "I want mommy!"

More tears welled in Kirito's eyes and he tried to hug her, only to have Yui screw up her face and hit his chest.

"I want mommy!" Yui bawled and refused to let her father hug her, wanting Asuna and not her father's comfort. "Mommy!"

Kirito sat quietly, bowing his head and tears dripping down his face while Yuuki sniffled in his one armed embrace and Yui repeatedly hit his chest, bawling and crying about how she wanted Asuna to come back.

Liz, with tears in her own eyes, picked Yui up and held her even as Yui tried to push herself away from her and hit her small fists against Liz's chest, knowing that Yui hitting Kirito and bawling wasn't helping the young man feel any better. Yui gave up hitting Liz after a few moments and just bawled, huddling close to her mother's best friend and crying the way only a heartbroken child could.

Agil spoke up, his own voice thick with emotion. "We should get them home Kirito," he spoke quietly to his ailing friend, "I'll handle dinner, but they should both be brought home where it's quiet and safe."

Kirito nodded lightly and got to his feet, still hanging his head, tears dripping from his face. "Let's go home," he murmured to his daughters, "it's dinner time." He couldn't help but shake a little at his own words, that Asuna wasn't going to be there with them that night.

"Kirito…" Liz spoke softly in concern, "are you okay?"

Kirito looked up at her and Liz's heart clenched. Kirito's eyes were red-rimmed and defeated, haunted by Asuna's death. "I will be because that's what she would want," he murmured quietly, "but my heart will always belong to her. That's not negotiatable."

**The Sword Dance of Black and White (Floor 22), Real Aincrad.** **〘** **Not Everyone Died IRL Kirito** **〙**

Kirito sat with his head cradled in his hands. It was late, Silica was with Yui and Yuuki, the three of them were asleep on one of the couches.

Yui was curled up in a blanket Asuna had made her a while ago to practice her tailoring skill, Silica was sprawled on a couch, limbs going everywhere while under one of Yuuki's blankets, and Yuuki was asleep next to her sister, one arm thrown over her small sister's body and tucked under another one of her blankets, a purple one Asuna had put together as well.

Kirito was sitting at the table with his head in his arms and a mostly untouched plate in front of him. He hadn't said much since they had gotten home, had virtually given up on getting his two daughters to bed for tonight, and was silently grieving under Liz's watchful eye.

He hadnt moved much over the past hour, and had his eyes quietly closed, reminising about his and Asuna's adventures and just his wife in general.

Liz was sitting quietly in a chair at the table across from him, her chin resting on her hands while her pink colored eyes remained focused on her friend. Liz had grown out of her crush on Kirk to, after watching him and Asuna be perfectly happy with their little family for three years she had learned to love Kirito like an annoying little brother. She didn't know what to say, she was torn up over Asuna too, she had been her best friend, but what she had with Asuna, a sibling like relationship, was nothing compared to Kirito and Asuna's relationship. They were married for three years, battle partners for four, raised Yui together, adopted Yuuki, and more. Asuna had once told Liz that if she hadn't met Kirito she wouldn't have gone on to try and beat the game, and Liz believed her. She had met Asuna back in the first year of the game where the famous Aincrad Princess and red cloaked wearer had quietly asked to come into her shop and she had agreed. Asuna had been reserved at first, full of fire but hesitant to make friends, but over time she had warmed up to her to the point where they were now. Now they were practically sisters, even though Asuna was now gone.

"You can go home Liz," Kirito broke the silence with his croaky voice, "I want time to myself."

"Nuh uh, that ain't happening after earlier, you gave all of us a heart attack." Liz huffed and shook her head, "I'm not leaving till you look atleast a little better."

Kirk to opened his mouth to groan a complaint, but the glow of a teleportation outside and frantic footsteps stopped him short. He shot to his feet, standing protectively near the front door, one hand reaching for the sword shimmering as it emerged from his inventory. His remaining sword, Elucidator.

The front door was flung open and the person responsible stopped in her tracks, screeching to a halt in front of Kirito. Very familiar amber eyes, currently filled with shock and worry, blinked back at him and Kirito could only stare. Both because she had died in front of his very eyes, and because she was a little different. Just like how Kirito had changed a little after the IRL shift, Asuna had too. Kirito had gotten taller, less lanky and filled out more to fit his IRL age, and Asuna? Well if she was beautiful before then she was drop dead goregous now.

Asuna was taller too, standing at Kirito's nose, she was less of a teenager and more of the twenty-year-old woman that she was now. With her figure having settled on being slim but curved, she had filled out some more, her caramel colored hair was as healthy and bright colored as usual, and to his surprise Asuna had faint freckles along the bridge of her nose too faint for the Nervegear to have picked up on. Her shoulders, which were bare from the cut outs of her light green shirt, a shirt he hadn't seen before, had freckles scattered on her white skin too. They weren't even close to being as dark as Liz's, but they were still freckles. Light colored dots scattered along her open shoulders and even fainter ones on the backs of her hands that matched the nearly invisible ones on her face.

Kirito, his arms shaking slightly, lifted his arms and slowly placed his hands on Asuna's waist, relieved to be able to feel the warmth given off her body and able to feel her standing there. He felt like he was daydreaming, dreaming that Asuna was there with him, that Heathcliff hasn't taken his wife from him. "Asuna…?" He slowly said her name, the syllables rolling off his tongue in the familiar blending that was his wife's name. How? How was she alive? "Is that… really you?" He asked softly, and lifted his hands to cradle her face in his hands, thumbs settling softly over her cheekbones. "You're really alive?"

Asuna's amber eyes glistened with emerging tears and she lifted her hands to lightly grasp Kirito's wrists before she leaned into his touch. "It's me," she said quietly, "I'm really here."

* * *

_**A/N: Drew this to go with the one-shot back when I first released it on Fanfiction.net** _

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